Episode 75: Understanding Money with Phil Denniston & InflationEducation.net
By: Jamie Gaddy and Homeschool.com
Episode Info
Let me introduce you to Phil. Phil Denniston is founder and CEO of InflationEducation.net, better bedtime stories revealing the secrets of the debt-based fiat money system using the pricnipals of liberty, sound money, Austrian Economics, and Natural Law. Phil holds a BA in Economics from the University of Colorado.
With InflationEducation.net Phil was able to marry his two passions: Understanding the history and mechanics of our monetary system AND using story-time with his four children (ages 5-14) to reveal the wizard behind the curtain, preparing them for the debt-based fiat money system that awaits.
It’s common knowledge that our country is in financial trouble. And most of us, as parents realize that we need to a step back and begin educating our children – and sometimes ourselves -about money and for financial stability. But I noticed when I was reading your bio, that you mentioned the “debt-based fiat money system” These are terms that not all of our parents will be familiar with can you take a minute to help us better understand? (read more below)
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Phil’s Response:
One challenge for parents’ intent on preparing kids for the world that awaits is finding materials or curriculum revealing how the money system works. By that we mean not just the basics of finance – saving, spending, investing, compound interest, and borrowing – but the essence of money: What is money, what works in the role, what are its historical properties, and how is money created?
Most parents (and school systems) cannot touch the subject because they don’t even know themselves. All of us were raised to believe today’s money is just what it should be, and the only way it could be. Instead, we’re living – right now – in a historical aberration, using unbacked, debt-based fiat money.
Debt growth (both public and private) has exceeded economic growth (or our ability to repay) for decades, and the inflation that is now accelerating – $7 dollars for a dozen eggs? – is the signal that the money system itself is breaking down, unraveling in plain sight, as ‘fiat’ money always does.
Taking a step back, fiat means ‘by decree’. Thus, fiat money like the US Dollar bill, means ‘money because the government says so’, not money that’s backed by anything real or has been chosen to be in the role by the free market. For 5,000 years, what’s worked best as money is gold or silver. Paper notes or digital representations are fine, if exchangeable at fixed rates. This is called a “gold standard”.
Article 1, Section 10 of the US Constitution calls for just that-
“No State shall… make anything but gold or silver coin a legal tender”.
America’s founders understood the importance of money backed by a measured weight of gold or silver. This is unlike today’s money that can be conjured from thin air by banks and bureaucrats.
At InflationEducation.net, we use ‘better bedtime stories’ to help prepare your family, revealing the secrets of debt-based money using the principles of America’s founding – liberty, sound money, Austrian Economics, and Natural Law. These delightful, full color hardcovers bring it all to light, creating indelible memories for your kids as you mix them in with all the classics during that nightly ritual.
Our customers like to be prepared, thus lean heavily homeschooled. We back it with an unconditional Alliance Guarantee. Buy the bundle, save 40% now and forever, and if you don’t like them, we’ll refund 100% of your money, and you can keep one anyway. It’s that important these stories find your family.
Five titles (so far) include “Where does money come from?”, “Good-Debt, Bad-Debt and the Big Green Blob”, “The Big Bad Business Cycle”, “The Madness of Crowds”, and “The Beautiful Bitcoin Book”.
As wonderful as the stories are, the most valuable thing we offer is totally free. We developed an Ultimate Parent’s Guide to Money, Saving, & Investing, taking 25 years of our own research, shrinking it down to plain English, and using humor to make it simple and fun, including a Silver Saving System for kids, plus a foolproof 10-Step Plan to start them down the path of investing. They have an advantage today that they will never have again – the gift of time – to compound a lifetime of security and abundance.
They grow up fast. One second, you’re cutting grapes in half, and the next, they’re on their own, fending for themselves in a mixed-up world, an unanchored mess of finance and debt. Don’t miss the opportunity to open their mind, revealing the True North that our modern money system lost long ago.
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About the Series
Where'd my instruction manual go??? I know we've all wondered that about parenting and homeschooling! Join us as we chat about the big stuff and everything in-between! Helping homeschoolers with practical teaching tips to find all they need to Homeschool and Love it!!